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US 'kills Isis leader' who called for rape of Yazidi women in Syrian air strike

The unconfirmed report was gleaned from Isis supporter social media use

New York

Friday 02 June 2017 23:44 BST

An isis supporter in Syria (AFP)

The Isis leader responsible for providing the religious justification for the terror group to turn “infidel” women into sex slaves has reportedly been killed in a US air strike.

Isis supporters in forums on the “deep web” have been posting photos of the Isis comannder, 32-year-old Turki al-Binali, leading intelligence services that track jihadi social media to conclude that he is likely dead, according to NBC. Other sources confirmed his death to CNN.

The US Department of Defense had previously confirmed that coalition forces had conducted air strikes against Isis propaganda production facilities in Iraq and Syria late last month. Al-Binali was reportedly killed in the Syrian city of Mayadin near where those strikes occured.

The Pentagon declined to confirm or deny whether al-Binali had been killed, but a US intelligence official did not dispute to news agencies that he had died.

Al-Banali was a Bahrani cleric who offered religious opinions to Isis leadership on a variety of issues. He was reportedly the head of the Isis Research and Fatwa Department in 2014 when that group released a fatwa that allowed for the rape of infidel women. There were more than 3,000 Yazidi women and girls taken captive from their villages in August of 2014.

Many of those women and girls were taken as sex slaves, repeatedly raped and brutalised.

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Al-Binali was described by Isis as an “ideologue” and as a “spiritual leader.” He was passed over for a spokesman role in the terrorist organisation in 2016, leading to his marginalisation and confinement to a strictly religious role within Isis. He reportedly hadn’t been actively involved in official Isis propaganda activities for two years.

The US has embarked on an effort to take out Isis leaders involved in the use of social and other media responsible for recruiting new members both domestically and abroad.

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